About Online Job Scams :
People getting trapped in online Job scams are rising, this is because of Covid19 and shrinking jobs in the private and public sector, added to is the large number of students passing out from professional colleges.
Scammers collect data of the unemployed youth from the darknet that belongs to Job Portals, they then publish advertisements in leading newspapers, pamphlets, send mass mailers and even contact victims directly over the phone.
They book luxurious hotels for interviews and during the interview process, they ask for a security deposit, interview fee, or other charges, in turn, provide fake documents and then disappear in thin air. Very interestingly they also create spoofed websites of reputed companies, job portals, or even government departments to mislead applicants.
Victims Profile :
Mostly the victims are from tier 2 or tier 3 cities, who come to tier 1 cities for jobs who are graduates from lesser-known colleges or institutes having poor interpersonal communication skills and having experience between 0-3 years work experience.
Mostly they prospective employees in their early to mid 20’s who may not be good at written or spoken English, neither skilled at their jobs and low professional expertise, who have applied on job portals.
Few Online Job Scams :
- Background Entry Job Scams – Bypass all formal interview processes and get a job without being qualified officially in reputed companies.
- Work from Home Job Scams – The victim offered to be employed at home for doing very simple task with a minimal effort for a hefty income.
- Data Entry Job Scams – Asked to sign a legal contract for doing a simple data entry job that has a penalty clause.
- Social Media Following Scams – The victim is lured by an offer for doing some simple task (Follow, Like, Share, and Comment) in exchange for a hefty income.
- Abroad Job / Education, Scams – Offer you a visa guarantee for a Job / Education for a hefty charge.
- Career Consulting Scams – Offer you resume writing, resume forwarding, organising interviews, or other career-related services for a charge.
Identifying a Probable Job Scam :
(a) You get the job Immediately after a quick phone or Instant Message interview.
(b) Online Interviews via Instant Messaging platforms.
(c) Google/ LinkedIn / Official Domain search results do not show up proper results of the openings interviewed for.
(d) If You’re Asked to Provide Private Information (Aadhar. PAN and Passport copies) in the pretext of Background Check, Ensure you send to legitimate email ID only.
(e) They want you to pay money, real companies don’t ask for money neither requests you to pay refundable / security deposit or a service fee, etc
(f) Many Scam Emails will look like they come from real companies but they are Unprofessional written and here are some examples…
- Sending from Gmail / Yahoo Accounts instead of their official domain emails
- Alternatively, they might use a spoofed website i.e. jobs@bankof-america.com instead of jobs@bankofamerica.com
- No Salutation i.e. Mr. or Ms., They just give the name which means a template is compiled and pasted for many people.
- Capitalisation errors: ‘Anil Rachamalla, It should be ‘Anil Rachamalla.
- Punctuation, Commas, Periods, Paragraph and Full of Grammatical errors
- Email Signatures having only mobile numbers and they do not publish a board number with an extension.
- Email ID may be spoofed, Please check the Email header thoroughly
Tips for Not Falling into Online Job Scam :
- Don’t make personal and sensitive information visible on your social media profiles.
- Never pay money upfront for background checks, admin, or service fees.
- Accept money for nothing, for ‘working from home scams.
- Consultant a Lawyer before you sign any online/ legal agreement
- Don’t share any private or personal information until you’re sure it’s a legitimate company.
- If a company is offering you a lot of money for a little work, it most likely is a scam.
- Submitting original certificates to any company for any job.
- Seek Advice from friends who work in the same companies / study in same universities
